Tuesday, December 4, 2012

WBC could be loaded with Nats

US Presswire photo

The third installment of the World Baseball Classic will be held in March.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A handful of prominent Nationals (Alfonso Soriano and Chad Cordero in 2006, Adam Dunn and Joel Hanrahan in 2009) participated in the first two installments of the World Baseball Classic, but the upcoming third installment of the international tournament could be loaded with players off Washington's roster.

So far, only outfielder Roger Bernadina (Netherlands) has committed to playing in the Classic, which will be held March 2-19. Plenty more could follow as rosters are assembled and announced in the coming month.

Team USA will unveil its roster on January 16, with no shortage of potential Nationals in the mix for spots.

Bryce Harper seems a logical choice for manager Joe Torre. So does Ian Desmond, whose chances will be boosted by the fact Derek Jeter is recovering from a broken ankle. Ryan Zimmerman could participate as well, though there are plenty of deserving third baseman including David Wright and Chase Headley.

And, of course, there are potentially a half-dozen members of the Nationals pitching staff who could receive consideration: starters Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann and Ross Detwiler and relievers Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard.

On the international front, the Venezuelan club certainly would love to have native son Wilson Ramos play for them, though the Nationals might be reluctant to let the young catcher go because he'll be in the final stages of rehab from a torn ACL.

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comments:

Strasburg Mark? There is a Senator from Hawaii named Inoye. How do you pronounce his name again? They aren't going to ramp Strasburg and Zimmerman up for the WBC. Might as well suggest Nate Karns, Matt Purke, or Sammy Solis? How about Lucas Giolito?

derailed his career? past two season combined, he has pitched 131 innings with 2.40 ERA. having said that, i am skeptical if nats allows SS and JZ to pitch in WBC. I would love to see them pitch on international level but I doubt it. Then again, rizzo did let SS pitch in ASG albeit just one inning.

I posted about past and future Nats WBC participants at NationalsArmRace a couple weeks ago. http://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=5110 . I count 6 nats on non-USA teams plus anywhere from 4-6 guys playing for the USA team.

There's also a blog out there who is doing significant WBC roster predicting; it makes for interesting reading. http://baseballcontinuum.wordpress.com/ if you're interested.

On Maya; i'm pretty sure the Cuban team does not allow any defectors onto their team. He'd make a decent choice (as would the likes of Livan, Cespedes, Chapman, Contreras, Escobar, Viceido and a slew of other guys with Cuban ties). Braves managers Fredi Gonzalez was born there too. Too bad; I'd love to see a consolidated cuban team competing.

JD, I don't know about his status but his stats in 2008 were terrible too. I don't know if WBC cost him 2010. Besides Ayala pitched like 3-4 innings over eight days. I don't think that's enough to affect a reliever.

Paying hurt at any time is a big risk for a player. But, let's be clear, Strasburg is not hurt. Pitching 15 innings in the WBC in March is not some wild risk for the guy. If he wants to represent his country in this -- it is in effect the Olympics/World Cup for baseball -- then they should let him do so.

Love the concept (a true world championship); not so keen on the notion that players from 'my' team might somehow be distracted from their preparation for the regular MLB season, hurt, or otherwise disadvantaged.

The WBC has a pitch count rule -- not sure whether it's 60 or 70 -- which mitigates concerns somewhat (at that point of ST, pitchers should be doing three innings per outing) -- but not much. I'd be in favor of Rodriguez pitching for Venezuela if I could count on him coming back on the 60-day DL, which seems to be the only way to keep him from screwing up the roster for a full season. (Who does he have pictures of?) I don't know how deep in the barrel the USA team will go but I'd let them experiment some more w/ Perry if they wanted to, maybe play Tyler Moore in LF. Otherwise, quarantine the whole team w/ some sort of flu bug.

The risk of injury in ST is always present, just as it is in the WBC. However, in ST it is necessary and the WBC is less important than the NHL All-Star game (if there is one). Nobody gets better because they played in the WBC. The managers, coaches and trainers who know the quirks of individual players are out of the picture. Here we are talking about paying FAs multi-millions of dollars and then they go off to the WBC and purposelessly risk career-ending injuries? So the team can go out and spend more mega-millions on a replacement? Don't think so!

Minimally, there ought to be some limits on who can participate, maybe players w/ less than two accrued seasons in the majors, or more than 12. The U.S. doesn't need Gonzalez or any other Nats pitcher to sweep the Class A+ equivalents of most of the international teams.

Let me refresh your memory. Ayala pitched winter ball; came into the WBC hurt but was still used several days in a row. Lost almost 2 full years and returned as a middle reliever/mop up guy.

At his peak with the Nats he was a top notch set up guy.

The problem with the WBC vs. spring training is that in the WBC the managers are playing to win; in spring training the managers are building up arm strength and having the pitchers work on pitches/arm slots/grips etc. winning in spring training is irrelevant.

Olt is really a 3rd baseman who the Rangers put at 1st base because they have Beltre. He destroyed minor league pitching but he hits right handed and is 24 years old so I son't really see the fit but what do I know?

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About the Author

Mark Zuckerman has covered the Nationals since the franchise arrived in D.C. He's been a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America since 2001 and is a Hall of Fame voter. Email mzuckerman@comcastsportsnet.com.